


Rose Red

by Lawlipaw



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Beauty and the Beast Elements, Codependency, Crimes & Criminals, Dubious Morality, Endearments, M/M, Multi, Obsession, Organized Crime, Possessive Behavior, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, kai is no prince charming, spoiled princess!sehun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-27 23:20:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8421520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lawlipaw/pseuds/Lawlipaw
Summary: Monsters are often made into a legend, a nightmare, or a cautionary tale, and Kim Kai is all those and more. He built an underworld empire in the shadow of a glittering Seoul. Often callous and cruel to those that oppose him, he exists on the edge of the abyss devouring everything in his path and always, he's hungry for more but high above his tower of steel and glass lay his most prize treasure--a beautiful but thorny flower that pierce any of who presses close, because even monsters yearn for the beauty of the untouchable.





	

_**When is a monster not a monster?  
Oh, when you love it. ** _

_\--_[Caitlyn Siehl, " _Start Here_ "](http://alonesomes.tumblr.com/post/78510570406/start-by-pulling-him-out-of-the-fire-and-hoping) 

 

 

Kai strides into the penthouse suite with a spring in his step despite the six hours long flight that had taken him from Singapore and back to Seoul, expecting a warm welcome after a business call had took him five days away from home.

It’s late into the night so he’s not surprised there’s isn’t a bevy of noise from the servants that usually work in the upper floor of his penthouse, but this kind of silent though is peculiar.

Each floor of the penthouse always has one or two servants available at all times if they ever need anything so he anticipated at least someone making their presence known to him. 

But it’s like a ghost town in here.

Just as his plane had landed earlier, his head of security, Josuk, had reported nothing of interest in the last couple of days beside the usual small scuffles of discontent from other Jopok groups whenever he leaves Seoul and the GPS monitor on his cell phone told him that his target of interest had barely left the penthouse, only for school and monitor outings.   

Kai moves deeper into the penthouse; the rooms are flood in with light as he navigate through the labyrinthine hallways of the place.

It’s soon enough that he spots Misoo anxiously walking back and forth in one of the living areas that lead into a three bedroom hallway. She looks fray and tired, franticly pacing across the hard floor that Kai is surprised there isn’t a permeate itch mark on his floor already with the way she’s going at it.  

“How’s my princess?” he asks her in lieu of a greeting, leaning against a wall as he carefully observes her.

If it was anything life threatening or worrisome, Kai would have been notified right away and rush back but if Misoo didn’t bother to contact him than—

Startles, Misoo immediately stops and drops her head. “Welcome back, sir,” she says with a grimace. “He’s—“

A loud crash come from inside one of bedrooms in the penthouse draws their attention.

Misoo winces as she looks in the direction of noise. “He hasn’t been feeling well since this morning,” she says, and by the continuous violent crash that’s coming from inside his princess’s bedroom that’s putting it mildly.

“Ah,” Kai says in revelation. “He’s sulking I see.” That he can definitely deal with.

When Kai makes a move toward the path of the commotion, Misoo’s eyes widen. “Sir, I don’t think you should--” she protests but Kai quickly waves her off. 

“I’ll handle it,” he says and dismisses her from the area after telling her to sort out the gifts he had brought back from his trip that left in the floor below them.

Misoo looks turn for a second before relief set in at the thought of finally be relieved of her duty and not having to deal with headache in the room. He honestly doesn’t pay her enough.

The closer he gets to the disturbance, the louder the bangs and thumps is met with equal force until he’s standing in front of a double tinted glass door and pushes his way in without any vocal invitation.

“I told you to get out!” his princess says, voice pitch loud and high enough to wake their neighbors if they actually had any. 

“Do you plan to break everything in here,” he says, sauntering into the room.  

Sehun pulls to a stop, his attention shortly diverting from his task of destroying his entire bedroom. He is holding a gorgeously painted gold and silver Chinese porcelain vase above his head and looks just about to let it meet the floor.

Seizing the moment of reprieve from Sehun’s tantrum, Kai surveys the entire room, taking in the chaos left in Sehun’s wake. It’s like being caught in the aftermath of a tornado, glasses and pieces of porcelain strung across the floor and Sehun is in the eye of the storm. The entire room is a disaster zone, curtains ripped out of its place, chairs flipped over, table overturned, pillows shredded and the comforter discarded on the side like trash but the only place of relative peace and left barren of debris is where Sehun is currently standing.

Mentally gauging the damages, Kai expects tomorrow will be busy for the Kim’s household. He will have to have everything clean up before he can have the Misoo and the others properly start the redecorating and replacing all the things Sehun had destroyed. He’ll also have to move Sehun into another room temporary while they’re at it, which definitely won’t go well with him but Sehun was the one who put himself out of a bedroom in the first place so he’s going to have to put up and shut up about it.

And by the fierce glare Sehun is shooting at him currently, he’s probably more annoyed at Kai’s for having distracted thoughts and not paying him any attention than the fact he’s without a bed right now.

But before Kai can even think of a respond, Sehun turns his focus from breaking his bedroom to breaking Kai’s  _face_  instead as he tosses the vase across the room and right at Kai’s head and Kai, because he knows his princess well enough by now, deftly ducks out of the way.

The vase collides against the wall just right behind him but Kai doesn’t even flinch, even when it nearly mash his head in. “That’s quite a welcoming,” he comments idly, looking over his shoulder to see pieces of porcelain he got from Beijing for Sehun. “And there go your favorite vase.”

Sehun crunches his face up in annoyance, but holds back a biting respond to his comment—which is a first. “What did you do to Doyeon?!” he demands instead, flushed with angry red that stained his cheeks like the brushstroke of a paintbrush. His eyes are lit up like a wildfire scorching the land—furious, dangerous, and utterly beautiful. “He’d been missing for three days now and nobody heard a single word from him since than! If there’s anyone who can make someone disappear without a trace it’s you.”

He levels Kai a suspicious glare and Kai only smiles as his carefully eyes roam over Sehun, drinking in every inches of him that Kai had miss out on when he was away. Pixelated screens doesn’t do his princess justice.

In his white pajamas, Sehun stands in stark contrast against the lush red furnishings of the room as though there it is in front of him is a large canvas painted over by a deep crimson hue but only in the center of it is there still an unblemished white, free of taint.

He is Oh Sehun, Kai’s princess—temperamental, ill nature, and oh so lovely and untouched. It makes Kai want to  _ruin_  him for good.

“Kai,” Sehun snaps again, when Kai still haven’t respond to him, too busy admiring his princess.

Kai pulls himself out of the inspection and hums thoughtfully. “Oh, you mean that rat that hung around you like a bad odor,” he says, shrugging. “I had a little talk with him and now he’s spending some time with the fishes in Han River.”  

Sehun’s freezes, shocked and horror written over his face. “What did you--?” He shakes his head in disbelief. “Why would you do that?! He didn’t even do anything to you!”

“Now, did you think I wouldn’t have eyes and ears here even when I’m not in the same country as you?” Kai muses, the corners of his lip curving upward. It’s a smile but with all the biting sharp edge of a knife. “Everything that you do and everything that you are is mine since the day you forfeit your life to me. From the tip of your hair and to the very air you breathe—those are mine and mine alone.  So imagine my surprise to hear that someone been trying to get close to my princess.”

Sehun isn’t cowed one bit, he meets Kai’s gaze dead on. “Am I not allow to have any friends?” he demands hotly, hands curling at his side.

Kai tilts his head reflectively as Sehun glowers at him. “Friends you can certainly have,” he finally answers. “I don’t like it but I’ll tolerate them for you. What I can’t stand though is trash that dare to covet above their station. He lay his hand on you and now he’s paying the price for it.”

And that’s when Sehun’s face  _breaks_ , his mask of defiant falling apart at the news of his friend’s fate. “Is he—” he chokes out, voice trembling, “is he dead?”

“What do you think?” Kai asks, looking at Sehun expectedly.  

Sehun’s eyes are wet with undisturbed tears but not a single of them fall, and the glare he manages to shoot back at Kai’s non-answer tell all Kai needs to know. He doesn’t cry, absolutely  _won’t_ —good because a dirty rodent like Seok Doyeon doesn’t deserves any of Sehun’s tears.

“That I should know better by know,” Sehun admits softly, looking away.

Kai sighs, scratching the side of his head. Sometimes planning a corporate takeover or interfering and destroying other Gopok group’s projects is so much easier than dealing with Sehun’s emotional bouts.

But Kai is not one to let Sehun’s stew in despair over another person, let alone an insignificant rat that wouldn’t even ping on Kai’s radar if he hadn’t heard from one of Sehun’s guards about Doyeon trying to make a pass at his Sehun.

He moves toward Sehun and kicks the debris out of the way, clearing a path to Sehun.

“Let’s get out of here,” Kai says as he approaches Sehun.

Sehun’s lips flatten out in an impressed line, looking like he’s about to bite Kai’s hand off if he reaches any closer but Kai is not deter. He stroll overs and abruptly scoops Sehun up in a bridal’s carry much to his shock, giving Sehun no time to react.

“Kai!” Sehun yelps, scandalized. “Let me down!”

Kai snorts. “Don’t be stupid, there are still glass on the floor,” he says, holding Sehun firmly as he carefully navigate his way through the mess that Sehun created.  

Glaring at Kai in defiant, Sehun looks like he’s about to bolt from Kai’s arms but when Kai grips on him only tighten further in warning because Kai can be gentle but he’s not  _kind_. Sehun quiets down eventually and lets Kai’s carry him out and into the living area outside of his room, without much of a struggle.

He gently places Sehun down on a love seat and drops down on his knee in front of Sehun even as he hears Sehun’s gasp. He pulls up Sehun’s left foot and places on his thigh.

“Kai! What are you doing?!” he demands, trying to draw back his captive leg but Kai’s grip on it anchor it in place. He kicks the other foot out in further protest, violently struggling against Kai’s hold on him.

“Let me see,” Kai grunts when Sehun’s free foot collides with his thigh again. He grabs it and clamps it still with his other hand as he carefully checks over the one in his grasp, trapping Sehun’s completely even as he fight it. When that is done, he examines the other foot looking for any marks or blood on it.

Thankfully, there isn’t any noticeable cut on the sole of Sehun’s feet. Sehun’s tantrum set fit to threw the room into chaos to match his mood but at least he hadn’t injure himself in the process.

He releases Sehun’s feet and draws up, towering over Sehun’s sitting figure. Sehun has his knees up as a shield between him and Kai, and curling deeper into the loveseat even as he stares evenly at Kai.

Kai leans down and brace his arms on either side of Sehun’s head. “Since we finally got that all out of the way, may I have my welcome home kiss now?” he asks, waggling his brows.

Sehun frowns, pausing momentarily as though in conflict and then turns away—denying Kai’s his due.

He laughs, as if his princess would ever make anything easy for him. Now that would be a joke of the century.

“You know I won’t ask again,” he says causally, and though there’s a lightness to his tone, the underlying warning underneath his words make it obvious that he won’t take no for an answer.

The question was only given because Kai was being polite, a gentleman even, but what does he need permission for when what is given has always been his to take?

But Kai won’t push for it because it isn’t as fun as seeing Sehun finally giving in, surrendering to him completely, so he watches and waits.

Sehun draws his lower lip between his teeth, chewing on it in thought. He plays with the cuff of his shirt and looks pass Kai’s head.

It’s a minute or two of silent and Sehun’s finding his the walls behind Kai much more interesting than what Kai had suggested that he finally drops his feet down to the floor again and shots a hand out to grip the front of Kai’s shirt forcibly.  One of the Kai’s buttons nearly come off if in Sehun’s haste and if it wasn’t such a highly made Saint Lauren’s silk shirt, Kai would have expect it to be rip.

Sehun yanks Kai in not too gently but the press of his lips is soft and sweet against Kai. His tongue peeking through and Kai barely has a taste of it before he draws it back. He the corner of Kai’s lips and teasingly chew on Kai’s bottom lip but it just isn’t enough. So when Sehun seems to be done and starts pulling away, Kai seizes him by his nape and keeps him in place.

He pries open Sehun’s lips and pushes his way inside, devouring every taste of Sehun until finally, Sehun quietly submits to his hunger and opens up to him like a flower in bloom, leaning into his kiss and letting Kai take what is rightfully his.  

Kai draws back slightly, letting Sehun catches his breath but not long enough that Sehun think they’re done. He leans in again, pressing so close to Sehun that the smoldering fire in Sehun’s eyes look like stars that burn only for Kai. “I’m home, princess,” he murmurs against Sehun’s lips. “And I miss you dreadfully.”

Sehun doesn’t respond to his declaration but the grip on Kai’s shirt only tightens further, holding him in place as though he was afraid to let Kai go. What Sehun refuse to say with his words, his action speak loud enough to swallow any noise.   

 

 

_~*~_

“Don’t do this Sehun,” he begs, struggling in his seat as the binding only constricts further with each fight. “This isn’t like you.”

Sehun picks up the gun from the floor of the empty factory. “You don’t know me,” he says, leveling the gun in front of him. His finger ghosting on the trigger and he breathes, slow and steady even as his heart rattles around in his ribcage.

He shakes his head, tearful and shaken with every decisive second. “You wouldn’t never do this, Sehun. Kai brainwashed you!” he insists. “I did it all for you, Sehun. I was saving you from him.”

Sehun tightens his grip on the handle of the gun. “Who are you to decide that for me?” he says evenly.

There’s a roar in his ears, and all he hear and see is Kai, Kai, and Kai. “ _Do it, sweetheart_ ,” Kai whisper in his ears, sounding so close and tangible that Sehun aches all over for him. “ _Show him no mercy. Don’t forgive those that try to tear us apart.”_

“I can help you,” he tries again, looking hopeful and pleading. “Don’t let Kai fool you, he doesn’t love you. He doesn’t care about you or anything. He only care about himself and his wretched empire and he’s going to  _ruin_  you for it, Sehun.”

“Don’t—stop it!” Sehun says. His voice trembles but his hold on the gun never falter.

His words cut at Sehun but Kai’s assurance keeps him there, keeps him grounded. He can feels Kai’s presence wrapping itself around Sehun’s body, his hand over Sehun’s triggered finger, and his voice murmur sweet words into Sehun’s ears like a devil’s temptation. Kai is not here but he’s in the words that Sehun said and he’s in bullet of the gun’s chamber.   

“Kai’s a monster,” he says, hushed and grave. “You’ve seen it, all the thing he’d done.”

Sehun lets out a dry and pained laugh. “Then what does it make me knowing who and what he is and still choosing to stay with him after all?” Sehun asks, shaking his head in disbelief. “Don’t make me into something I’m not for your little deluded fantasy. Stop trying to casting me as an angel because you’ll learn that I’m not as forgiving.”

He looks shaken and horrified as he protests, “No Sehun, it’s not—“

“Shut up, I’m not going to listen to you anymore,” Sehun’s eyes flash brightly, “You—you betrayed him, you  _hurt_  him—my Jongin,” he says, his voice breaks at the last word.

When Sehun shut his eyes all he sees is red. The world of Kai is bright and dyed in the color of violence, vengeance, and cruelty. Sehun spent the first year living with Kai trying to run away from it, to not let it drown him out and paint him over.

Now in this moment he recalls the feeling of Kai, looking so pale and unnervingly fragile, bleeding out in Sehun’s arms under the most beautiful blanket of stars that night and consoling a weeping Sehun,  _“Shh, don’t cry, princess, your tears are too precious to be shed out here and in front of everyone.”_  

Kai is not supposed ever look that way because Kai can’t die. He just can’t.

The sky is blue, the water is wet, and Oh Sehun can’t live without Kim Jongin since the day he handed over his futile life to Jongin.  It’s the truth that holds up Sehun’s world and it’s one he’ll never give words to because Kai’s love is heavy thing and Sehun is afraid, always afraid bare it.

But now, his finger itch and the gun never felt more lighter and comfortable than it is in his hand.

“Sehun, no don’t do it!” he screams, his voice echoing through the empty factory.

Sehun shut his eyes, a shot is fire and he too paints his world a deeper color—as red as the heart he had given Kai along that day.   

**Author's Note:**

> I have a thing for terrible people doing terrible things for love or just terrible people in general who is cruel to the world and everyone but is particularly sweet and weak to the one they love so :P. I jokingly call this a 'twisted rendition of beauty & and the beast' which make sense in my head and will hopefully make more sense to you guys in future chapter. This prologue chapter was meant to highlight a few things--how Kai see Sehun and how he treats him devotedly, possessively and obsessively which is quite frankly scary at times; and then how Sehun sees Kai and the great length sehun goes for him so his feelings clearly it's not one sided. It's more interesting when creepy obsessed is a two way street that lead to moral corruption lmao /o\\. also this set the foundation for their relationship and dynamic for future/past chapters and how incredibly fucked up everything is but also creepily fluffy at times which is kind of my favorite. So hi if that's your thing, I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I did and thanks for reading!


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